This application is related to copending application Ser. No. 451,823, filed Dec. 21, 1982, for METHOD AND STRUCTURE FOR SELECTIVELY INTERCONNECTING ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT ELEMENTS by Levy Gerzberg, coapplicant herein, and to copending application Ser. No. 245,115, filed Sept. 15, 1988, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,045 for METHOD OF FABRICATING ELECTRICALLY PROGRAMMABLE ELEMENT IN A SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT by Alex Sinar, Eric Sirkin, Elan Blech, Yosef Shacham and Levy Gerzberg.
This invention relates generally to programmable memory matrices and more particularly the invention relates to a programmable memory matrix employing voltage-variable resistors as the programming elements.
Copending application Ser. No. 451,823, supra, discloses a voltage-variable resistor which uses predictable and selectable programming voltages. A surface region of a semiconductor body is bombarded with ions to disrupt the crystalline structure of the surface region or to implant dopant ions which are not initially activated in the crystalline structure. This greatly increases the resistance of the surface region. Subsequently, by impressing sufficient voltage across the surface region, part of the amorphized surface of the structure is annealed and the ions are activated, thereby significantly reducing the resistance of the surface region. The application discloses the use of the voltage-variable resistors in a diode matrix with each diode in the matrix being serially connected with a voltage-variable resistor for programming the matrix.
The present invention is directed to a diode matrix memory of the type disclosed in application Ser. No. 451,823, supra.